PrintMarch 3, 2011
Satirist Iowahawk schools Nobel Prize winner Krugman
Last week Nobel price winning Paul Krugman of the New York Times penned a column titled "Leaving Children Behind" wherein Krugman insinuated that schools in Texas were deplorable. This riled Dave Burge of well known blog Iowahawk, who then proceeded to school Krugman in statistics, logic, and honesty in his piece titled "Longhorns 17, Badgers 1".
Burgess recognizes Krugman's dishonest analysis immediately and promptly hauls out the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results to prove his point. The NAEP test results are broken down by state, grade, ethnicity, and subject. Iowahawk uses these test to answer the question "So how does brokeass, dumbass, redneck Texas stack up against progressive unionized Wisconsin?". The answer proves that receiving a Nobel prize just isn't what it used to be.
2009 4th Grade Math
White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national average 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)
2009 8th Grade Math
White students: Texas 301, Wisconsin 294 (national 294)
Black students: Texas 272, Wisconsin 254 (national 260)
Hispanic students: Texas 277, Wisconsin 268 (national 260)
2009 4th Grade Reading
White students: Texas 232, Wisconsin 227 (national 229)
Black students: Texas 213, Wisconsin 192 (national 204)
Hispanic students: Texas 210, Wisconsin 202 (national 204)
2009 8th Grade Reading
White students: Texas 273, Wisconsin 271 (national 271)
Black students: Texas 249, Wisconsin 238 (national 245)
Hispanic students: Texas 251, Wisconsin 250 (national 248)
2009 4th Grade Science
White students: Texas 168, Wisconsin 164 (national 162)
Black students: Texas 139, Wisconsin 121 (national 127)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 138, Texas 136 (national 130)
2009 8th Grade Science
White students: Texas 167, Wisconsin 165 (national 161)
Black students: Texas 133, Wisconsin 120 (national 125)
Hispanic students: Texas 141, Wisconsin 134 (national 131)
In the 18 tests compared, Texas comes out ahead in 17. Most honest observers realize that Krugman is a hyper partisan commentator whose logic often strains the bounds of rationality. Dave Burge took the time to prove that the Nobel winning economist also needs a refresher course in freshman statistics.
